Is New Make Spirit the next big thing in cocktails - and how to make simple drinks at home

The high ABV spirit, which is usually put into casks and matured into whisky, is becoming all the rage in cocktails. Rosalind Erskine finds out why, and if it’s easy to use in drinks at home.

It’s the clear liquid you'll usually see flowing through the spirit safe on whisky distillery tours,. But now ‘new make spirit’ - the heart of the spirit run that then gets filled into casks - is being bottled, sold and used in cocktails.

Traditionally, visitors to a whisky distillery would only view this spirit, but more recently some may have been able to smell or taste new make. Now it is becoming a drinks category in its own right, especially with newer whisky distilleries.

Robert Meek, bar manager at Port of Leith, said the team had perfected their new make recipe and bottled it, before the distillery was even open. He said: “Our distillers have been working on the formula for our new make spirit long before the distillery itself was completed.

“Our first commercial quantity batch of spirit was distilled at The Glasgow Distillery Co as a trial run. This batch was never intended to be aged and turned into whisky, but was more of a proof of concept to show to the whisky world and to our investors that we've got the right stuff as a company to produce quality single malt, and as a way to showcase our particular interest in how different yeast strains can drastically alter the flavour of a spirit.”

An excess of this batch led Mr Meek and the team to “dive into malt spirit as a stand-alone product and incorporate it into our whisky and cocktail offerings at the bar”. 

New make spirit being the marker for the future whisky, plus something tangible for customers to buy ahead of any releases, is what the the soon-to-open Lerwick distillery is offering. Martin Watt, director of the Lerwick distillery on Shetland, told The Scotsman they would be selling new make spirit “from day one”. Called Haad Still, a Sheltand phrase meaning ‘hold on’, the drink will be for sale via the distillery shop, or by joining one of the distillery’s memberships.

Down in Hawick at the Borders Distillery, what started as part of the tasting journey, led to demand for their new make spirit - which they hadn’t intended to bottle at first - and ultimately the product being for sale.

John Fordyce, managing director at The Borders Distillery, said: “From the beginning, we have always offered samples of our New Make Spirit for tours and tastings. We continued to receive really positive feedback from visitors on the quality and flavour of the new make, and more and more of these people expressed an interest in buying bottles to take home. Before we knew it, we were bottling our new make and selling it. After a few more years of good reviews, we decided to enter our New Make into some competitions – this year picking up ‘Best in Scotch’ at the 2024 World Whisky Awards.”

Borders Distillery new make spirit

For those that have never tried new make spirit, it has a high ABV and can often be fruity and malty. Mr Meek said the flavours were dependent on the distillery and would be influenced by factors such as the grain used, fermentation time, temperature, water source, yeast strain and the presence of peated malt.

He said: “One of the most common words that gets thrown around behind the bar to describe the flavour of new make is ‘tropical’. Our trial batches from Glasgow Distillery were both vividly reminiscent of bright red fruits, stone fruits and drupes, whereas our first run in the new building tasted distinctly of banoffee and berries.”

With flavours like these, it is no wonder new make is making itself known in cocktails. Mike Aikman, owner of Edinburgh cocktail bars including Bramble, The Last Word and Lucky Liquor, said while it’ was difficult to work with - given its high ABV -  his team have included new make from Holyrood distillery in their Cross Brew coffee liqueur. They also have a drink on the Bramble that uses Monkey Shoulder Fresh, called 'Amica Nova'.

Drinks writer Iain Meldrum likened the flavours in new make spirit to those found in a light rum or blanco tequila, and suggested cocktails that would usually have these spirits as the base. He said: "Try rum classics like margaritas and daiquiris, but the new-makes can also stand up to richer berry flavours and bitter modifiers like Suze or Campari.” Port of Leith serves a new make daiquiri, 'Moonshine on Leith'. If people are not keen to get that creative at home, Jaclyn McKie, of Lagg distillery, suggested a simple new make highball, by just adding soda, ginger beer or cola to a serving of the spirit. 

Elsie making a cocktail with a Holyrood new make spirit

Another Edinburgh distillery that is trying new things with its new make is Holyrood. Elsie Cinnamond, brand home duty manager and drinks creative at the venue, said: “In our bar we use new make spirit as both the base spirit of cocktails as well as a modifier, alongside things like whisky, rum and gin. We find that new make can be excellent at adding texture and body to mixed drinks.

“Our experimentation with malt and yeast means we have a larger portfolio of new make recipes than the average distillery. Our more fruity new makes like Hefeweizen Yeast (banana, tropical, clove) make a beautiful short sour, like a daiquiri - a good white rum replacement. Roasted malt recipes like Chocolate Malt (cacao, coffee, black pepper) are more suited to richer, stirred-down cocktail styles like Manhattans and Old Fashioneds - or even stirred into hot chocolate in winter.”

The rise in popularity of this new spirit is not just down to businesses and bars diversifying, it is also due to customer demand for something new. Ms Cinnamond has noted this trend, saying: “There has been a shift in the drinks industry since I started some ten years ago. More and more consumers are interested in tasting something they have not experienced before and there is a general curiosity and want of transparency from this new generation of drinkers, which aligns nicely with what new make spirit can offer.”

Mr Meek added: “Up until recently, new make spirit has always been a means to an end. We are now experiencing a global craft whisky boom, with new distilleries such as Port of Leith popping up and re-investigating the process of producing whisky without being tied to centuries of tradition. As consumers are losing interest in age-statement whiskies and traditional methods, there is a higher demand for whisky that prioritises complexity of flavour and innovative production techniques, and so both new and established distilleries are paying more attention to the quality of the un-aged spirit.

“As a result, not only are the spirits being produced more interesting and more palatable, there is a consumer demand to purchase and taste the raw spirit as an insight into the whisky making process.”

So next time at the bar when a cocktail is being created using new make spirit, give it a try. It will showcase not just that particular distillery style, but also the bartender’s creativity and, it might even become a new-found favourite.